The Lord Is My Chef Breakfast Recipe for the Soul, Easter Wk. III, Wednesday, 08 May 2019
Praise and thanksgiving to you, O Lord Jesus Christ as we enter the final stretch of our Holy Land pilgrimage today.
It is very different experience to be in the wilderness of the Sinai desert – so cold, so barren, most of all, so isolated.
Lord, we are tired and longing for home. Now we can imagine the extreme difficulties and hardships of your people in the desert.
But you are so loving and merciful, so generous that you gave them bread from heaven, manna.
Now we have you Jesus as our bread, our life.
Like your first followers who were scattered following Saul’s persecution of the Church, they still went preaching the word – YOU.
We pray for more strength and courage to remain faithful to you, Lord, when we go through our desert in life. Let us share you as our bread to nourish the weak, gladden those who are sad and tired so that we may all persevere to meet you like Moses in the burning bush. Amen.
First photo is the Mt. Sinai mountain range at sunrise while the one above is the enclosed site of the burning bush Moses saw now under the care of Greek Orthodox monks at the St. Catherine Monastery.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 07 May 2019
We are now traveling to the Mt. Sinai area to cross into Egypt. As I have been telling you, this is my third time in the Holy Land and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial of Israel. I shall write later of my reflections but below is my email written the first time I came here:
23 June 2005
Shalom everyone!
Until now, I could still feel the impact Yad Vashem had on me.
I would just like to add here a story shared with us by Ronnie before our tour….
Accdg to Ronnie, he acted as a guide to a group of young Americans at the Yad Vashem last summer. They met a Jewish woman who survived the holocaust after their tour and told them firsthand her own experience from the Auschwitz camp.
The young tourists were so touched with her story, of how she had lost her parents, siblings and friends. As she wiped her tears, a young man asked the survivor: have you forgiven the people who killed your family?
And Ronnie said, the woman replied this way:I could only forgive if you would always remember.
We were also so touched with the story and the woman’s declaration: I could only forgive if you would always remember.
One of my favorite philosopher is Martin Heidegger, a German existentialist who, unfortunately, was blinded by Hitler’s rhetorics in the beginning but later denounced Nazism.
According to Heidegger, we are all “beings of forgetfullness”; he explained that this is the main reason why we always lead “inauthentic living.”
And that is true. We always have to remember the past not to take tally of how we were hurt or maltreated by others; we remember the painful past so that we would not repeat it and do them again onto others.
It is so sad that in our lives, we keep on remembering how we got inflicted with wounds so that we could wound others; hence, what we have is a vicious circle of violence and retributions.
That I think is the essence of “learning from history”—-of not repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
This is often at the root of many of our problems in our dealings with other people: parents, priests, teachers, supervisors or almost anyone who always remember the difficulties they have gone through when they were younger; we are sometimes guilty of harking at our painful past and get even with those presently under us. And the pains and the hurts increase, forgetting the lessons that could have been learned.
Our country is in deep, deep, deep crises because we are mostly “beings of forgetfullness”—we have a poor sense of history, we can’t remember the lessons of the past because we did not learn at all or just maybe, preoccupied with getting even or vengeance.
Forgiving does not mean forgetting because that is impossible; God programmed us to always remember so that we could become more loving, more forgiving, more understanding, and more like Him in seeing what’s good in everyone.
At the back of Yad Vashem is a breathtaking view of Jerusalem below. After seeing and somehow experiencing the horrors of the Holocaust, I can’t help thinking how come God could accept and allow the Jews, Moslems, and Christians live together in His old city when we can’t even stand the sight or the smell of the person next to us because he is not of same color or creed with us?
God bless!
With my parishioners the other day at Yad Vashem. Many cried at the sights in the museum but we were all touched with the personal story and reflections of our guide, a 70 year old man we fondly call Lolo Mendy. Will write his stories later.
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 02 May 2011
As I was telling you since the eve of our departure Sunday… this is my third pilgrimage to the Holy Land, my first as a chaplain guiding 23 other pilgrims.
The word pilgrim entered the English language during the Holy Wars of 1100’s courtesy of the French Crusaders. But its root can be traced to the Latin noun “peregrinus”, the combination of the words “per” or through and “ager” for land. Literally speaking, a peregrinus or pilgrim is one who walks through the land. A pilgrim is a wayfarer as the Hebrews would claim that we have “no lasting city” on earth. We are merely passing through this earth on the way back home to God who is also our origin.
So, what is a pilgrim?
A pilgrim is a follower or a seeker of God. In our age when traveling is a way of life not only in one’s own country but to various parts of the world, a pilgrimage to a holy site is different from a tour primarily because of God himself.
In a pilgrimage, it is God who calls us to follow him or seek him in the Holy Land and other holy sites. It is God who gives us the strength – physically, emotionally, and spiritually – to follow or seek him in a holy site. It is God himself who plans our itinerary for any pilgrimage we undertake! Believe me, every sacred site has a calling and no matter how much you have heard about it that you want to visit but God has others plans for you, you’ll never make it.
It is not superstition. Just today we were prevented from going to Mt. Tabor which we failed to visit in 2017; first time I went there was in 2005. I just don’t know why Jesus is keeping me away from his mount of transfiguration. I just feel deep inside it is not meant for me again. In 2017 I came to visit anew the tomb of King David but it was only then I realized that above it is the Upper Room of Christ’s Last Supper.
Every pilgrimage is an invitation from God. Does he play favorite why not everyone is invited especially in this age of frequent traveling?
God is not playing favorite among us when it comes with pilgrimages. It is more about the question of who is truly serious in following or seeking him for a more intimate relationship through a Holy Land or holy site pilgrimage. And this is because a pilgrim goes through the land to meet himself first. Unless we have come to terms with our very selves, we shall never come to terms with life. Or death. And ultimately with God.
A pilgrim is a serious follower or seeker of God.
A pilgrim walks through the land in order to meet himself or herself. The time and distance or destination do not really matter that much. The goal of any pilgrim is to experience and find God by discovering himself or herself. From being a journey, life then becomes a pilgrimage because a pilgrim is someone who keeps on going through the land, going through all the pains and sufferings to find himself or herself more in order to be with God always.
Ultimately, a pilgrim is someone who willingly enters into a relationship with God to follow Him and be with Him in any direction to reach His home, our final destination which is heaven.
Listen. The Lord must be calling you too to be a pilgrim. Follow Him.
All photos by the author. From the top: Mt. Nebo monastery where God gave Moses the chance to see the Promised Land; statue of Jesus sleeping on a bench in Capernaum; travelling through the desert highway in Jordan; and, morning boat ride at the Lake of Galilee.
The Lord Is My Chef Easter Sunday Recipe, 21 April 2019
Photo from Google.
During our morning prayer (lauds) at the parish today, I invited my parishioners to “internalize” the meaning of Jesus being buried, being “dead” this Saturday. I love the word “internalize” that evokes the imagery of Jesus “descending into the dead” while we his disciples go inside our very selves, probing deeper our heart and soul to examine our faith in the Risen Jesus Christ.
Internalize. I think this is the keyword this Easter Sunday. To internalize means to go into the dark, to befriend darkness. Unless we have gone through the darkness of Good Friday, we shall never fully appreciate the brightness of Easter Sunday. How sad that so many of us went through all liturgical celebrations and other devotional practices of Palm Sunday into Holy Thursday and Good Friday only to be absent this Easter Sunday which is the most important celebration of our faith, the very foundation of our being Christians. All those five weeks of Lent plus the Holy Week are preparations for Easter which covers more than 50 days beginning today until Pentecost. And those 50 days are counted as one big day because Easter is the Mother of all feasts in the Church!
And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith.
1 Corinthians 15:14
Recent events demand that we as a Church, the Body of the Risen Lord, internalize our being Christians. You must have seen that viral photo of Antipolo pilgrims who have turned the Cathedral into a huge trash bin during Holy Thursday’s visita iglesia. It was the same sight in many churches and pilgrimage sites last week that make us wonder if Jesus is really alive in us? Or, Jesus has risen but we have remained dead in our sins and indifference, in our own “do-it-yourself” kind of religion or cafeteria Catholicism when we choose to believe only in certain teachings and beliefs that suit our tastes and well-being.
Photo by Kae Rivera via GMA News.
Problem is not only with the faithful but also with us priests when we have forgotten or even disregarded Jesus our Lord and Master, giving more emphasis on our own beliefs and concepts of what is true, good and beautiful that our celebrations and practices have become more of a show than expressions of faith. See how repositories on Holy Thursday have become more like a stage for “Asia’s Got Talent” or any variety show that have robbed Christ of the dignity and honor because people have become more focused with the glitz and glamour of the stage design and production. Sorry to say, it has become more of a show than a devotion as people leave talking about the spectacle than Jesus being present. And the sad part is how we priests have misled the people away from Christ but consciously or unconsciously, closer to us.
Now see my dear readers how in our gospel accounts this Easter Sunday that the prevailing mood and scenery are of darkness.
At daybreak on the first day of the week… On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark… That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus…As they approached the village to which they were going, they urged Jesus, “Stay with, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
Luke 24:1… John 20:1…Luke 24:13, 28-29
From Google.
Jesus rose in the dead of the night to bring light and life. Recall how the evangelists unanimously tell us that when Jesus died, there was widespread darkness to remind us that our darkest moments in life are our finest ones when we are with him. His first appearances were all in the darkness of dawn, dusk, and evening. There is something in darkness that Jesus invites us to come to him and meet him. It is only in the dark when we truly enter into a new and deeper level of friendship and relationship, of intimacy with him or with anyone else like married couples because it is in darkness when we truly trust and believe the other person. In the darkness of the night we muster all our faith and trust, strength and courage to await the breaking of a new day filled with hope and joy.
In this age of social media when everybody has the whole world as a stage, we always live in the brightness of so many artificial lights, stage lights for performances or palabas as we call them. We no longer have what Paul Simon sings “Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again…” Jesus conquered darkness so we can befriend it to find our selves and others better. Darkness is the light that leads us to Easter! Life need not be always bright because the sun does not shine on all days.
The tragedy of forgetting darkness, of always living in artificial lights is that the more we fail to see ourselves, others, God, and the world around us. The more we fail, the more we are sad, the more we are unfulfilled. Worst, the more we do not see despite all the lights! Don’t you find that ironic, even absurd? And that explains why we have so many undeserving elected leaders today. This Easter, let the darkness of the dawn, of the empty tomb be our light in following Jesus. Be not afraid to walk in the dark like the two disciples going to Emmaus because Jesus always walks with us, listens to us, shares with us in the darkness of our lives. Jesus is alive and he loves you very much! Amen.
40 Shades of Lent, Thursday, Week-V, 11 April 2019
Genesis 17:3-9///John 8:51-59
From Google.
Almost forty days ago since we started this journey on Ash Wednesday, we have reflected that “life is Lent”. Today, O Lord, as we nearly conclude this Season of Lent on Saturday morning, we come full circle to that reality.
Life is Lent because it is about being with you, our God, our Father following your direction in Christ Jesus.
With you, God, we find life.
Without you, God, we lose life.
Help us to remain in you, dear God. To always stay with you as you have told Abraham from the very beginning.
God also said to Abraham: “On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.”
Genesis 17:9
Help us to remember and keep this always as you remind us too, that Jesus Christ your Son is our Savior primarily because everything he said and done were said and done in obedience to you his Father.
Jesus is the obedient one just like Abraham who first showed us how life is a daily Lent, of being centered on you, always listening to you, always doing your will.
In a few days we shall enter the Holy Week. May we always bring with us the lessons of this Season of Lent, that life will always be Lent, of being with you, staying with you, our God and Master. Amen.
Lawiswis ng Salita ni P. Nicanor F. Lalog II, ika-8 ng Abril 2019
Mula sa Google.
Madalas nating akalain Pananahimik ay kawalan ng imik Tinitikom yaring mga bibig Di pinapansin mga naririnig.
Ang tunay na pananahimik ay pakikinig Sa gitna ng katahimikang pilit dinaraig Ibuka ang bibig dahil baka kumabig ang dibdib Manaig iniisip sa loob ng munting daigdig.
Larawan kuha ni G. Howie G. Severino ng GMA-7 News sa Taal, Batangas, Nobyembre 2018.
Taliwas na madalas na kaisipan Katahimikan ay hindi kawalan kungdi kaganapan Mundo'y hindi iniiwan bagkus tinutunguhan Niyayakap at niyayapakan upang lubos na maranasan.
Sa panahong atin ngayong ginagalawan Puro ingay at salitaan, walang unawaan Hindi mapigilan talastasan na wala namang kaliwanagan Puro kadiliman, walang naiintindihan dahil walang katahimikan.
Tanging sa katahimikan mapapakinggan Ibinubulong at kinukuyom ng ating kalooban; Gayon din naman sa katahimikan matutukalasan Kahulugan ng sinasaysay ng sino mang pinakikiharapan.
Kung ibig ninumang Diyos ay makaniig at mapakinggan Kanyang mga Salita kailanma'y hindi maiintidihan Kung ang Kanyang katahimikan ay di natin kayang sakyan Dahil ang Diyos sa Kanyang kaibuturan ay pawang kahulugan at kaganapan.
Ang talong Shifen sa Taiwan. Larawan kuha ng may-akda, Enero 2019.
Sikaping makaibigan ang katahimikan Bagama't hindi madali, ito ay maaring pagsumakitan Dahil dito lamang matatagpuan mahahalaga at walang kabuluhan Pati na mga bagay na pansamantala at pangmagpakailanman.
Sa katahimakan ating nabibistay Mga bagay na lantay at walang saysay Buhay ay nahihimay, nakikita ang tunay Kapag tayo ay naghinay-hinay sa daloy nitong buhay.
Ating pagkatao ang siyang dinadalisay Takbo ng buhay nagiging matiwasay Dahil sa katahimikan buo ang ating pagtitiwala Kasabay ang pananampalatayang walang kapantay.
Larawan kuha ni G. Raffy Tima ng GMA-7 News sa Batanes, Agosto 2018.
40 Shades of Lent, Tuesday, Week IV, 02 April 2019
Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12///John 5:1-16
Dearest Jesus: Last night as I prayed amid the heat of summer, I realized that since the start of our 40-day journey of Lent, it is only now I have been reminded of one of the highlights of this Season, the sacrament of Baptism symbolized by water in the two readings today.
So often, Lord Jesus, we take water for granted, not realizing its value until it is gone.
Just like you, Lord.
Cleanse us, O Jesus, with your purifying waters of Baptism, keep us nourished like the trees seen in Ezekiel’s vision planted near the rivers, always filled with life, always green, always bearing fruits of good works.
Most of all, come to us Lord Jesus like in the pool at Bethesda or “house of mercy”.
Quench our thirsts for life’s meaning. Without you as our water, we are dehydrated, weakened, dried up by life’s so many demands and concerns. May you always refresh us, awaken us to many possibilities of life especially when the well runs dry. Amen.
Sin can be mysterious at times because it can also be a religious experience that leads us back to God and holiness. We have a saying that “every saint has a sinful past and every sinner can have a saintly future.” So many men and women who were so notorious in their lives have proven this so true like St. Paul and St. Augustine.
After reflecting on the call for conversion last Sunday, our gospel today tells us a lot about the nature of sin. Unless we understand what is sin and why we sin, then we get imprisoned by sin as we keep on committing it no matter how hard we try to be better persons. But once we understand even a little bit of it, its hows and whys, then we sin less often as we slowly break free from its bondage.
“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them.”
Luke 15:11-12
Sin is when we separate from the Father like the younger son when we ask for our “share of your estate that should come to me” referring to that part of this whole life only God can have in its fullness. We always have the idea that it must be so vast and huge that even just a part of it would be more than enough for us. We want to be on our own that we break away from Him, thinking wrongly that the share we have is more than enough for us without truly realizing how great and so vast is the Father’s estate which is life itself!
And so it happens, we break away from God and live on our own that sooner or later, our share dissipates until we lose everything.
This estate, this very life of God will never be gone like Him, will never diminish nor dissipate. We shall always have it, enjoy it for as long as we are with Him, our loving Father! This is also the point of the Father to the elder son when he refused to join their celebration when his younger brother returned. Life, love, kindness, family, everything that is good dissipates when held individually away from God. But when we share it with the Father through Christ, it is like the river that never runs dry.
When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need… And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.
Luke 15:14,16
Sin always gives us the sense of “freedom” like the young son who “freely spent everything”. There is always that wrong understanding of freedom as the ability to do everything and anything, feeling that everything in this life is ours alone. Freedom is first of all choosing what is truly good. To be free is to be loving, being a part of the whole and never separated from the whole. To be truly free is always to be one. This explains why when we are deep into sin and all alone, separated from others, we suddenly long to be one with others. The sense of belonging suddenly pops up within us because we find ourselves incomplete when in sin.
“My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.”
Luke 15:31
Here lies the problem also with the elder son who has always been present with their father but had never been one with him, never belonging to him. He is guilty of “sin of omission” when he felt nothing seems to be wrong with him as he breaks no rules of their father – except their relationship and ties. The apostle James wrote in his letter that “a person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by own desire” (Jas.1:14). Sin is always the desire to be sufficiently alone, to be powerful, to be God! See how since the beginning, we have never outgrown that sin of Adam and Eve of becoming like God, of playing god.
My dear sisters and brothers, like Paul in our second reading today, let us be reconciled to God in Christ. To be reconciled is to be one, to belong, to become a part again of God. In the dryness and desolation of sin like the desert in the experience of Joshua and the Hebrew people, God continues to bless us with so many gifts, so many blessings. The two brothers in the parable are both sinners but loved by their father. And so are we.
More than avoiding sins, our gospel parable this Sunday invites us to love God more by seeking His will always. Yes, we have all been hurt by someone else’s sins and we have also caused pain on others with our sins. Let us focus more on this vast gift of life and love expressed in God’s mercy and forgiveness that no sin could ever diminish. And the good news is that it is all free and totally being given to us by Jesus Christ especially in our Sunday Eucharist. A blessed week to you!
Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 22 March 2019
Moss on a pathway in Malagos Garden Resort, Davao, August 2018. Photo by author.
Last midnight I waited for my 54th birthday in our church to thank God for another year in my life. I just wanted to be with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and all I could tell Him was, “Lord, you have given me with so much and I have given you with so little. Teach me to give more of myself and most especially of YOU with others. Amen.”
As I sat alone in darkness, I thought of the many blessings and its lessons I have learned lately.
Everything indeed is grace. Whatever we get in life is always a blessing from God like love, patience, kindness, joy, mercy, knowledge and understanding as well every material thing we have. They are all from God. Share them, or better give them away to make life easier.
We only have two choices in life, either we become better or bitter.
Life is not about destinations but directions. Destinations are just points in life you reach or achieve, often connected with lines. And that’s it. So structured. But directions are about persons we journey with in life, something like your favorite pen or crayon that you pick to write or draw anything. It is always there, either following you or leading you wherever your writing or drawing flows into without any definite pattern, often in curves and circular motions. Always funny and enjoyable. Even crazy.
We do not find God, He finds us. Sooner or later in life and that is for sure.
In every situation in life, always look for Jesus Christ. Without Him, there’s no meaning in life or anything. And we find Jesus always on the cross.
Liars know very well the truth and that is why they lie. So, do not worry about gossips and lies they spread even if some people would believe them. Don’t waste time convincing them of the truth. They know it but refuse to accept it.
Anyone who is afraid to make enemies will never be able to stand for what is true and good.
Sad to say, life is not about intelligence. That is why we have so many stupid leaders everywhere – government, society, and even the Church! No one is gifted with everything in life because we are meant to relate and help each other. Like liars, stupids are not good company. Remember, only intelligent people go to heaven because St. Thomas said, the more we know things, the more we avoid sins and become holy. Idiots and liars are the most evil as they refuse to accept their sinfulness. Pray for them.
Enjoy life. Stop pleasing everybody except God alone.
Always handle life with prayers. No matter what happens with us, prayer is the final straw we are always left with to start anew in life.
40 Shades of Lent, Friday, Week II, 22 March 2019 Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-28///Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
Glory and praise to you O God our loving Father for the gift of life! As I celebrate my 54th birthday today which I welcomed last midnight, let me pray this to you: Lord God, you have given me with so much and I have given you with so little.
I have never been like Joseph a dreamer in the first reading. It was late in life – after I have met you or you have found me, Lord – when I started dreaming like Joseph, envisioning myself in the future with you my God.
You have entrusted me with so much and I have wasted so many of these in the past like those tenants in the parable of Jesus today. I feel so unworthy being your servant in those times I have refused to give your share of the many fruits of your vineyard by being more loving and merciful, more kind and humble with others. There were times I have rejected your Son Jesus Christ when I would insist on my own ways than your will.
Yet, despite all these, loving Father, you have always been gentle and generous with me. That is why I have stopped asking you for many things for myself because whatever I need, you always provide. Indeed, you have done so many for me that I never asked for that are “so wonderful in my eyes” (Mt. 21:42)!
Lord God, all I pray again on my 54th birthday today is that you help me to share more of myself and most especially more of YOU with others, that in every here and now, I may always say Yes to your Holy Will. Amen.
Thank you for your prayers for me too, my dear readers and followers. May God bless you always!
Sunrise at Lake Tiberias, the Holy Land, April 2017 photo by the author.
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